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Wednesday, June 1, 2016

SIFF 2016: 'The Pistol Shrimps' (2016) Movie Review

A documentary about a rag-tag group of comedians, actresses,
writers, and other women playing in a Los Angeles recreational basketball league
sounds like a lark, right? Like it may be an entertaining momentary
distraction, but not much more. While director Brent Hodge’s (A Brony
Tale, I Am Chris Farley) The Pistol
Shrimps is very much that, it’s also sweet and heartfelt, in addition
to being funny as shit.

Bowing at the Seattle International Film Festival,
The Pistol Shrimps toys with the tropes and clichés of
triumphant sports documentaries. Though maybe not world-changing, there’s a sly
feminist streak and much more depth and substance than the lighthearted humor and
outlier subject matter initially belie.

In a town with plenty of leagues for men, there was nothing
for women. That is until the Pistol Shrimps came along. Named after an aquatic
crustacean that shoots what amounts to an air bullet from one of its asymmetrical
claws, a crew of women got together, whipped up enough interest to field a
handful of teams, and got the ball rolling. Made up of a wide swath of people,
the team features actresses like Aubrey Plaza (Parks and
Recreation) and Angela Trimbur (The Final Girls),
a woman who edits herself into episodes of The Bachelor, two
models, a writing duo, a singer-songwriter, an entertainment lawyer, and more.

One of the originators of the league, the Shrimps are not
particularly adept at basketball, at least until this season. On the surface,
The Pistol Shrimps follows this misfit crew of mismatched
individuals coming together, improving, and chasing the dream an undefeated
season after lingering near the bottom for multiple years.

In true Mighty Ducks fashion, this is a
collection of big, bold personalities coming together for a common goal.
The Pistol Shrimps could have easily just been that, a bunch
of wild people in the unlikeliest sport imaginable, and wound up a disposable,
if engaging, documentary. But as the movie progresses, as it shows the players
practice, improve, and gel, it becomes obvious how important this is to the players,
and even people beyond the team.

This topic first came into the spotlight when Aubrey Plaza
showed up on a couple of late night talk shows with a cane and revealed how she
blew out her ACL playing basketball. Everyone thought this was an elaborate
joke—which, with her dry, stone-faced sense of humor wasn’t outside the realm
of possibility—but she, and the rest, take it much more seriously than most people
expect. There’s a deep dedication among the women who participate, both to the
team and to each other. They attend each others’ shows, push each other to be
better on and off the court, and create a supportive, unapologetic, empowering
environment that’s refreshing and moving.

And there was obviously a need for this. In just a few
seasons, the rec league blew up, from a handful of teams to almost 30, with
fantastic names like the Princess Lay-Ups and the Lucille Ballers. Moderate
crowds show up for their Tuesday night games, there are competing fan bases, the
LA City Municipal Dance Squad that performs at halftime, and even a two-man
podcast play-by-play of all the Pistol Shrimps’ games.

All of this obviously started as a spectacle, as a “look
what’s going on over here” style oddity, but it’s grown and evolved into something
much more meaningful. The sense of community, within the individual teams and
the league at large, shines through, and it becomes clear how important this
Tuesday-night women’s recreational basketball league is to a great number of
people.

It’s possible to watch The Pistol Shrimps
as little more than the story of a unique, admittedly often silly niche
subculture. But there’s more if you want it, including a deceptive emotional
weight and understated progressive streak that flows beneath the hilarious
surface currents. [Grade: B]